1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cabin for a passenger bridge for the passage of passengers into and out of an airplane.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large number of airports throughout the world currently use passenger bridges that are located next to an opening in the airport terminal building at one of the airport gates. These passenger bridges make it safe and easy for the passengers to enplane and deplane, since the passengers do not need first to exit from the airport terminal and then to go onboard the airplane from the ground.
Passenger bridges are normally jointed, for example, relative to the ground, adjacent to the terminal building in the form of, for example, a solid pillar. When the passengers pass from the gate of a terminal building into the associated passenger bridge they walk inside the bridge. It consists of tunnels. The passenger bridge includes a cabin at the junction between the passenger bridge and the airplane. The sides and the most external part of the roof of the cabin, which are in contact with the airplane fuselage when people are to enplane or deplane, are in the form of a bellows. This follows the outer shape of an individual airplane and in this way provides contact between the passenger bridge and the airplane fuselage.
The floor of the cabin includes a fixed floor with straight lines. When people are to enplane or deplane, the complete passenger bridge is maneuvered such that the cabin is located as close to the airplane as possible, leaving only a small gap, without colliding with the airplane. A threshold is subsequently placed between the floor of the cabin and that of the airplane. The gap between the cabin and the airplane is bridged in this way, and passengers can avoid tripping, for example.
When an airplane has landed at an airport and is parked at a gate, the bridge will be maneuvered such that it approaches sufficiently close to the airplane. The bridge is maneuvered from a control panel inside the bridge or the cabin. The complete bridge is maneuvered, as has been mentioned above, partly in a lateral direction, partly in a longitudinal direction and partly vertically, and partly around a connection in the form of a rotunda. This maneuvering is performed in this way to displace the complete bridge, and to place the cabin of the bridge sufficiently close to the fuselage of the airplane.
There are also other fields of application of such bridges, for example for the embarkation and disembarkation at large passenger and boat ferries. However, the present invention will be described using an example in which an airplane is docked.
The typical bridge is a system that is solidly built and may weigh up to several tens of tons. When the mass of the bridge is maneuvered, the bridge has a very high kinetic energy, and this makes it difficult to maneuver the bridge for fine adjustments. The maneuvering can be even more difficult at airports with snow and ice on the ground. If there is ice on the ground, the driving means of the bridge relative to the ground may, for example, slide, whereby the displacement of the bridge lies to a certain extent beyond the control of the operator.
Since it is desirable that the cabin of the bridge is placed sufficiently close to the airplane for the passengers to be able to enplane and deplane in a safe manner, there is a risk that the operator unintentionally maneuvers the bridge such that its cabin collides with the fuselage of the airplane. Given the kinetic energy that the bridge possesses, there are major risks that the fuselage of the airplane will be damaged in some way, for example, that the fuselage of the airplane acquires notches, microcracks, or deformations. Airplane safety is very high, and for this reason damaged airplanes must be withdrawn from the planned route in order to be examined and checked. In the event of minor collisions with the cabin, these checks may be sufficient if there is no damage to the airplane fuselage discovered during the check, but it may be necessary to repair the airplane fuselage in the event of somewhat more violent collisions. This gives rise to major costs for the company that owns the airplane, since the airplane must not only be withdrawn from its route, but also repaired.